We’re On Vox

I just found out that Alvin Chang
over at Vox has put together a really crackerjack
article
on how much higher residential segregation is in America than
employment segregation, and on how employment segregation has gotten
worse over the last generation. I’m biased, because he cites Rem
Koning’s
and my ASR
article
from last year, but still.

What I find really impressive is that Alvin didn’t get in touch with
us before the video and article ran (we’re the support group here,
alongside Hall, Iceland, and Yi’s recent Population Research and
Policy Review
article
[gated]),
but he nailed the interpretation of our findings. I thought I wrote
the article as clearly as possible, but I’ve had trouble explaining
its main import to reporters in the past.

It’s also really neat to see our explanation of different forms of
segregation show up almost unchanged in the video. Here’s the first
figure from our paper:

The last thing that should be noted here is that, when they showed the
paper in the video, they used the preprint version that Rem and I
posted on SocArXiv before
the article was accepted. The ease with which you can find it, versus
the hoops I just jumped through to find the (gated) copy of Hall et
al.’s article, is a pleasant little testament to the value of open
access and preprint servers.

All in all, a good day. As long as you don’t read the comments on the
YouTube video, of course…